Continued increase in the number of mobile subscriptions with a lot of data

22/05/2017

The number of mobile subscriptions with at least 1 GB per month as well as the total volume of data traffic transferred in mobile networks is on the increase. By contrast, mobile subscriptions without data have decreased. This is revealed in Swedish Telecommunications Market 2016, the report from the Swedish Post and Telecom Authority (PTS), which describes developments in the market last year.

The number of mobile subscriptions with voice services and over 1 GB data (mostly smartphone subscriptions) has increased by 15 % to 7.7 million. Other forms of mobile subscription are decreasing. This decrease is because there are fewer private prepaid cards, fewer mobile subscriptions with voice services without or with little data (under 1 GB) and subscriptions with data only. The total number of mobile subscriptions was 14.6 million at the end of December 2016, a reduction of 1 %.

“Users are continuing to demand high-speed broadband in their phones or tablets, and demand for high-speed broadband in the home is also on the increase. This is an important precondition for investments in mobile networks and fixed-line broadband networks to continue at a high level,” says Dan Sjöblom, Director-General of the Swedish National Post and Telecom Agency.

The volume of mobile data being used continues to increase strongly, despite the slight fall in the number of subscriptions. The volume of mobile data increased by 35 % in 2016 and related primarily to increased use from smartphones.

Fixed-line broadband – fibre

The number of fibre subscriptions continues to increase. There were 3.7 million subscriptions with fixed-line broadband. This corresponds to annual growth of 6 %. Fibre (including fibre LAN) has accounted for most of the growth in recent years. The number of subscriptions via fibre increased by 19 % and totalled 2.0 million.

Subscriptions with 100 Mbps or more continue to increase

The number of high-speed broadband subscriptions continues to increase. There were 2.2 million subscriptions with speeds of 100 Mbps or more, representing an increase of 36 %. Of these, 1.6 million were via fibre, an increase of 27 %, and just over 0.5 million via the cable TV network, an increase of 68 %.

Other developments

The number of subscriptions for fixed-line voice services continues to fall, and for the first time subscriptions via IP telephony are also falling.

The number of subscriptions for traditional pay-TV was 5.3 million, an increase of 2 %.

About The Swedish Telecommunications Market

The Swedish Telecommunications Market is Sweden’s most important operator survey of subscriptions, revenues, data traffic, etc. in the field of electronic communication. It covers mobile voice and data services, Internet services (broadband), fixed-line voice services, traditional TV services, data communications services and dark fibre to end customers and channelisation.

The Swedish Telecommunications Market is available in an online version at the PTS statistics portal. This includes not only all the material in tables, but also market shares with search and sorting options.

The Swedish Post and Telecom Authority (PTS) has been tasked with both tracking developments in the electronic communications market and promoting competition in that same market, as well as carrying out information activities aimed at consumers. As part of this undertaking, every year PTS collects and publishes market data in this report, The Swedish Telecommunications Market. The Swedish Telecommunications Market is a descriptive report. The base data is used in PTS’s work on analyses within the authority’s areas of responsibility. Analyses, reports and other material are published on the PTS website.